Resistant & Persistent Bacterial Cells
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Description

An activity on the difference between resistant & persistent bacterial cells. This activity aims to build on the pre-lecture materials about resistant bacterial cells, so that students can make a connection toward persistent cells. In both cases, they make antibiotics less effective.

Learning Objectives

Recognize the importance of antibiotics in fighting bacterial infections. Understand how bacterial species become antibiotic resistant. Determine the difference between resistant and persistent bacterial cells.

Social and Collaborative

Students work together on this in-class activity in groups of 2-4 (3, ideally). Each student will have one of the following roles: encourager, recorded, investigator, and time keeper. At the end of the activity, students will download the Google Slides as PDF and submit it for credit, graded based on completion.

Recommended courses for the activity

This activity is recommended for students taking general microbiology. To a larger extent, this activity can be applied to classes that go over antibiotic resistance. This activity is straightforward enough to be used by students in lower division or upper division as long as they get lectured on antibiotic resistance. A short lecture is also provided in case you need to teach about antibiotic resistance.

How the activity works

First, each student takes a survey on basic knowledge about persistent, resistant, and sensitive bacterial cells.

Then, students review the concept of antibiotic resistance through the case study involving Vanessa who goes off to college and becomes infected with chlamydia. After taking antibiotics for a few days, she stops her treatment halfway because she feels better. Unfortunately, she eventually becomes much worse as the bacteria have become more aggressive and resistant to the antibiotics she has been taking.

Students continue working on this activity by going through a series of questions to explain the consequences of persistent cells. The life cycle of persistent bacterial cells and then the graph on the difference between persistent, resistant, and sensitive cells conclude the activity (on the right).

Each student finally takes a post-activity survey to ensure they understand the concepts and their thoughts on the activity.

Contents

  • docx RESPER_Facilitation_Guide_SocialTools_v1.docx(DOCX | 2 MB) pptx

  • RESPER_Activity_Deck_SocialTools_v1.pptx(PPTX | 2 MB) pptx

  • RESPER_Lecture_Antimicrobial_Drugs_Antibiotic_SocialTools_v1.pptx(PPTX | 21 MB)

  • RESPER_PrePostFeedback_Questions_SocialTools_v1.docx(DOCX | 69 KB)

  • Activity_Deck_Setup_Info_SocialTools_v1.docx(DOCX | 249 KB)

  • RESPER_Facilitation_Guide_SocialTools_v1.docx(DOCX | 2 MB)

  • RESPER_Activity_Deck_SocialTools_v1.pptx(PPTX | 2 MB)

  • RESPER_PrePostFeedback_Questions_SocialTools_v1.docx(DOCX | 109 KB)

  • RESPER_Lecture_Antimicrobial_Drugs_Antibiotic_SocialTools_v1.pptx(PPTX | 21 MB)

Publication Date

4-4-2025

Publisher

QUBES Educational Resources

Keywords

bacteria, Antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, persister cells, resistant cells, antibiotic treatments, SocialTools

Disciplines

Bacteriology | Biology

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.25334/9RRV-3B07

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Resistant & Persistent Bacterial Cells

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